ASSEMBLY: Melissa Melendez prepares for first term

SACRAMENTO — Riverside County’s 67th Assembly District has the fifth-highest Republican registration in the state, an oasis of friendly territory for a party that, after November’s elections, is all but irrelevant in the state Capitol.

Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, begins her first term intent, she said, on finding out whether Democratic leaders’ promises of working with Republicans are real or just talk.

“There are a lot of different areas where we can meet in the middle,” said Melendez, former mayor of Lake Elsinore. “Time will tell. We’ll see who’s going to go strictly party line and who’s sincere about improving the business climate of California.

“I don’t think it cuts me off at the knees, but it will take some creative efforts,” she added of Democrats’ two-thirds supermajorities in the Assembly and Senate, which allows them to push through any type of legislation on party-line votes.

Melendez, 44, said she is particularly interested in joining bipartisan efforts to revamp the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA. Critics call the law cumbersome but supporters say it provides vital protections.

Melendez said the law “is really a mess.”

“Having come from a local level where you really feel the effects of it, there is a lot wrong with it,” she said.

She has not yet introduced any bills; the deadline to introduce non-urgency measures is Feb. 22.

Melendez can serve up to 12 years in the Assembly, but she may try to change houses after only one term.

Riverside County’s redrawn 28th state Senate District, which runs from Lake Elsinore to the Colorado River, overlaps much of the 67th Assembly District. Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, who had expressed interest in running for the Senate seat, instead may run for Congress next year.

“We are looking at it very closely,” Melendez said of the 28th District.

Melendez, an Ohio native and Navy veteran, is married with five children. Last June, she finished second in a five-way, all-Republican primary and then topped Eastern Municipal Water District board member Phil Paule by 4.6 percentage points to win the Assembly seat in November.

Melendez is the first woman in more than two decades to represent any part of western Riverside County in the Legislature. In the 1980s, former Orange County Sen. Marian Bergeson’s sprawling district included what was then-heavily rural southwest Riverside County.

During the past decade, much of the territory in the 67th District was represented by former lawmakers Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, and Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore.

Haynes, who was among the Legislature’s most conservative members, frequently spoke up during floor debates and gave out “nosy awards” for the worst Democratic bills. Jeffries also had a conservative voting record, but had a more understated style than Haynes.

Describing her own approach, Melendez said she feels like she can get things done without “throwing rocks in the air.”

“People eventually stop listening if you’re always ranting,” she said.